


'Who Died Over Summer Break?'

by miss_nettles_wife



Series: Whumptober 2019 [24]
Category: Eerie Indiana
Genre: (technically) - Freeform, Canon Compliant, Gen, Whumptober, highschool
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-02
Updated: 2019-11-02
Packaged: 2021-01-18 19:29:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21282056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miss_nettles_wife/pseuds/miss_nettles_wife
Summary: Whumptober day 25: NumbMarshall watches Janet and Dash play their new favorite game.
Series: Whumptober 2019 [24]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1501328
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	'Who Died Over Summer Break?'

**Author's Note:**

> every day i creep closer and closer to the end. looks like im about 5 fics away now. But I'm still having a good time. Anyway. Once again. Sorry Mars.

There was nothing fun about coming back to school after spring break as far as Marshall was concerned. Out of his daily routine of delivering the papers and then doing what he wanted with whoever he wanted, and into the suffering of going from class to class with people he generally didn’t care for.

What’s worse, he had a class before lunch with a teacher who believed in ‘the bell doesn’t dismiss you, I do’ like it was a religion. And for lunch, it was some kind of macaroni and cheese mystery meat abomination. Ugh.

On his way to the cafeteria, he took a detour past Simon’s class, and tried to spot his best friend through the window, but was unable to. Annoyed, he went to his locker (six-six-six, naturally) and dumped his books. He stuffed his lunch money into his coat pocket and escaped into the cafeteria. Like he’d thought, the line was about a mile long and none of his friends were somewhere he could scoot in behind or in front of.

Eventually, with a tray in hand, he gets to the front of the line. A scoop of pasta, some soggy fries, a piece of bread, a small milk and an apple. Joyus, truly. The lunch lady has a third eye underneath her normal left one that always seems to be able to see when students are trying to slip extra food or something. He likes her because she doesn’t tolerate bullying in her line. He paid for his food and headed to the back, where he could see two of his friends waiting.

He passed the music kids, got a wave from Tod. He passed the theatre kids, the popular kids, the sporty kids, and the bully kids before finally reaching the table. The only two there were Janet and Dash. Not so unusual to see Dash here these days, not since he realized he could practically get a free meal by sponging food off of him and Melanie. Janet usually had a packed lunch, but being the first day back seemed her mother had given her lunch money.

Dash was waving a fork around, speared on it was a piece of pasta and sauce. He was wearing his usual but seemed to have run a comb through his hair and hung his coat on the back of the chair rather than wear it. His red shirt seemed to also have been washed recently. Janet reminded him a bit of Cousin Itt, obviously over the break she’d gotten permission to use the hair straighter and had been straightening it every day since. Her long red fringe went just about into her eyes, and she smelled of burnt hair. Also of note: her outfit. She was wearing a T-shirt with a large faded pink heart on a white background, but tied around her waist was the arms from the jumpsuit she was wearing as pants, tucked into a pair of high top sneakers. What was interesting was that the jumpsuit was from Eerie Car Repairs, and the reason that was interesting was because her father owned the towns opposing business, Eerie Automatic.

He’d gone back to New Jersey over the holiday to see his friends and the family who still lived here. He’d had a great time, but he’d also called Simon every night to make sure Eerie was well...Still here. If there’d been any emergencies, he’d handled it. It also seemed that Janet and Dash had made friends, which made him uneasy.

Not just because Dash had tried to kill him, though he had done that, but more because the idea of their combined sarcasm was just about too much to bear. Dash didn’t seem to see this, though and since he got back he’d found him hanging around not just Janet, but Melanie as well. Probably because of her friendship to Janet.

Speaking of, where was Melanie? He didn’t see her around, but maybe she’d finally come to her senses and become a popular kid. She could, and they were all aware of that. Marshall was too weird, Dash was not a student here, Janet would always be the girl who ran away and Simon was a kid. But Mel? She was funny, and pretty, and smart, and nice...But mostly she was pretty. Which was a key trait of being popular he observed.

He looked over at Dash and Janet, who didn’t seem to have noticed the disappearance, but were more focused on the book on the table in front of them.

“What are you guys doing?” He asked. Janet’s yearbook was spread on the table, and she was holding a thick red permanent marker in one of her hands. Some faces had red ticks and crosses on them.

“We’re seeing who died over spring break.” Janet remarked, “Have you seen Pete Smith?”

“Yeah, he was in chem, but had to go home for a headache.”

“Damn.”

“You owe me five bucks,” Dash said, as Janet put a tick on Pete’s face.

“You guys had a bet as to whether Pete Smith was alive or dead?” Pete was a normal kid, didn’t seem involved in weird stuff, favorite color was green and once in art he ate clay on a dare.

“Yeah?” Dash said, and Janet flipped the page. He noticed that she had a lot of signatures on hers, way more than he or Simon had.

“How about Lucy Moon?”

“She drowned in Lake Eerie.” Dash said, “I saw the rescuers come get what was left of her out the water from the Mill.” Gleefully, Janet struck through Lucy’s face. Under her name she’d written, in gel pen ‘Have an Awesome Summer Janet!!’

“Jimmy Butcher?” Dash asked, pointing at one.

“Oh, yeah. He went into Eerie Wood on a dare.”

“So he’s dead.”

“As good as.”

“But we don’t know for sure.” The two meditated on it while Mars kept looking for Mel.

“I say we cross him out,” Dash said.

“But if he makes it out, then we’ll look like idiots.”

“Do you really care what Jimmy Butcher thinks?” Janet admitted she did not and struck him out as well. Under his, he’d written his phone number and a heart. Had Janet gone out with him? Mars couldn’t recall.

“Where’s Mel?” He asked, trying to get them to stop playing their morbid game.

“She’s in the counselor's office,” Janet said, without looking up. Dash stuck the piece of pasta into his mouth, apparently, this was his meal instead of Janets. Not that he blamed her; he took a bite and yeah. Nasty.

“You guys know those are real people right?” He asked, frowning.

“Yeah, duh,” Janet said, Dash had his mouthful and said nothing. Janet dipped a fry into the ketchup, and then ate it.

“Don’t they deserve some....I dunno. Respect.” They looked between each other and then back at Marshall.

“We do respect them.”

“Really? It doesn’t seem like it.”

“Look, Slick, if you get caught up caring about everyone who dies around here...You’ll kick it too.”

“You don’t like anyone!” He complained.

“Well, I think he has a point.” Janet remarked, “I’ve lived in Eerie my whole life, and most of my childhood friends are dead. Imagine if I stopped to be sad over everyone every day? I’d never get anything done.”

Marshall looked away. Was this what Eerie did to people? Took nice people, and made them numb to death?

Well, at least it was only a year until Simon had the same lunch hour as them, and he wouldn’t have to listen to them anymore. 


End file.
